


Lost and Found

by SilverShortyyy



Series: The Last Requiem [4]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mourning, Post-Battle of Winterfell, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 02:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18681853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverShortyyy/pseuds/SilverShortyyy
Summary: Post-Battle of WinterfellTheon Greyjoy had done many sins in his lifetime, and made many enemies because of it. He had also done a great many things to atone for those sins, however clumsy those attempts might have been.Sansa found herself forgiving him after he risked everything for her, was ready to die protecting her. Yara Greyjoy had found herself believing in Theon, supporting him, when she knew not evenhebelieved in himself. They both know he died well though. It just seemed to them as if he had been taken too soon.





	Lost and Found

Sansa doesn't take it too well when Bran tells her that Theon is dead. She tries to be graceful about it, but even while trying to maintain her poise, she could not hold her tears back.  She excuses herself when the tears can't  be kept  at bay, and finds herself rushing to the Godswood with no mind to who she passes by.

She might've even passed Jon, but she doesn't know, doesn't notice anything.

When Sansa is at the Godswood, she cries.

She tries to keep her voice down, but the screams force themselves out as well as the tears do. She presses her palm against the bark, raking it with her nails, willing the pain out of her. Theon. Theon is gone. Theon is gone, and he had died here.

He died protecting Bran.

Sansa remembers Theon, Theon who she had wanted to kill. Theon, who had jumped off the high wall of Winterfell with her to get her away from Ramsay.  Theon, who found himself torn between his sister and herself, who came back, Theon who spent the last of the night with her, before the Battle .

She remembers him, meek, almost always asking for permission. But he didn't do it the way Reek did, no, not in the way Reek always anticipated a slap or a punch or something else.  No, this had been Theon, Theon who had killed himself again and again over what he had done, Theon who tried and willed himself to do everything to make it up to the family he had hurt.  Theon, who asked her if she would allow him to fight for the Stark name, who had that look in his eyes that wondered if he deserved to have her eating supper with him on the eve of the battle.

' _You deserved it, Theon._ ' He's far away now,  maybe  nowhere at all; her words might never reach him, at least not the way she wishes it will. ' _You already made it up to us. You didn't have to go that far._ '

But he did have to go that far. And she knew that.

When the tears dry, Sansa sits under the Godswood like a child, until even the sun says goodbye for the time being. The world is a blur, and even the blooms of the Godswood fades into the world when the sun descends into the horizon.

At least the night won't be long. At least the world won't end  just  yet.

"He died protecting Bran." Sansa doesn't even mind the sudden sound of Arya's voice. Arya's been doing that a lot these days: creeping up on people and  suddenly  talking. Sansa doesn't mind it right now. "  I don't think  he would've wanted it any other way."

Sansa sniffs. The tears are dry but the wound is fresh; they always seem to get taken away  just  as she's finally made her peace with them.

"I think  so too."  Sansa wonders if things could have happened any other way, if there was a better ending out there where the five of them would live to grow old and make peace, and become the siblings they never had the chance to be before the whole war happened.

But the world is cruel and the past  is done .

Sansa leans her head back against the Godswood, while Arya leans, flanking the Godswood. No more words  are exchanged, no more movements done.

At least, Sansa thinks, Theon had stopped apologizing for sins he had already atoned for that night. She wishes Jon could come around soon. They've all done stupid things before. 

 

* * *

 

Yara finds out through a raven from Daenerys.

' _Theon Greyjoy died at the hand of the Night King. He died protecting Brandon Stark._ '

Yara laughs when she cries, doesn't let go of the parchment.

She laughs because he did it, he finally did it, finally became what an Ironborn  was supposed  to be. Brave.  Recklessly  brave.  Even death could not deter him; she knows  easily  that bravery is not fearlessness, and after what he had gone through, she knows that dying at the hand of someone  immensely  stronger than him was an incredible amount of bravery for Theon.

She's proud of him.

She's proud, and she can't believe it, because he did what no one else  probably  could. He died an Ironborn and a Stark. For that, she is not angry in the slightest bit.

She's happy for him, actually, her little brother.

She cries because he's gone, because their goodbye had been their last. 'What is dead may never die' but it still hurts when someone dies. It hurts now that he has died.  Especially because Yara does not remember when the last time was that someone  really  mattered to her like that, the last time when someone had fought for her despite everything, fought for her instead of fighting beside or behind or against her.

It is lonely at the top, and she had liked the company when he was around.

She finds herself at the edge of the castle, inhaling the sea into her lungs.  Just  as she had finally gotten him back, he had  been taken  away from her.

She would curse at the wind if she didn't know him better. Know his loyalties better. Know that he would have given anything to stay with her if his heart had not felt loyalty to other people.

He went out the way he wanted to, they way he should have, and for that at least, she's grateful.

She doesn't let the parchment get taken by the wind, but lets the sea's winds wash away her tears.

Yara is glad that Theon had at least been strong enough to have fought for her, and to have fought for his family in the North  .  Tradition  be damned  ; her baby brother had grown up and grown brave and strong, and if she couldn't be happy about that, then she can't be happy about anything .

Inside the castle, Yara writes to Daenerys and asks if Theon's body could  be carried  to Pyke as soon as possible, for an Ironborn funeral. If the Starks choose to send him off, Yara thinks, then she will let them, but  hopefully  they let her have him.

He's her baby brother, after all.

 

* * *

 

Daenerys finds herself in an awkward position when she goes to Sansa about Yara's message.

"She asks if she can be the one to send Theon off, as she is his sister." For the first time in her life, Daenerys feels like an outsider. Not excluded and seen as an object, but an actual outsider. "I will tell her if you've already made arrangements, and I'm sure she'd understand if that would be the case—"

"It's alright."  Sansa never seems to cry, seems more likely to claw Daenerys' throat out than be vulnerable around her, but in this instance, Sansa's eyes cannot look at Daenerys, cannot even  be kept  from becoming red  . "Theon should have an Ironborn funeral. He  was supposed  to go back there after the battle, anyway."

_If he survived_. But Daenerys says nothing.

Daenerys  simply  nods and goes, arranges the transport and sends the raven.

She finds herself mourning him despite herself.  Not even Jon's (Aegon's) indifference to Theon Greyjoy's death could keep her from feeling Yara, and even Sansa's, grief. Theon Greyjoy seems to have worked his way up from being someone horrible. Worked his way up, from  being lost, to  being found.


End file.
